Striving, Stumbling, and My Personal Plan for Growth in the Coming Year

This was taken about 29 years ago. I haven’t changed that much, have I? 🙂

Today is a special day for me.

Here’s why: I was born just under 11,000 days ago. In other words, today I’m turning 30.

The big 3-0.

Yep, I know. Yikes is right. Does this make me a grown-up? 😉

Anyway, I used to have this birthday practice of writing myself an “annual report” letter, about everything that went well in the last year, everything that didn’t, everything that I learned along the way, and how I intended to try and be a better person going forward.

(And I’m talking about *real* successes and failures; there won’t be any references to sales figures or dollar amounts here.)

I’d send that letter to all my nearest and dearest, and ask them to hold me accountable to the commitments that I’d made to myself.

Now, it’s been a few years since I’ve done that, but since I’m starting a whole new decade, I decided to revive the practice.

So let’s start with the good; the things that I’m happy about, and proud of myself for having done or achieved…

Some Reasons to Look Back and Smile

Business and life are all about people and contribution, and any success that I can claim must be rooted in the positive impact on others.

And maybe this is my unfair advantage to being successful: I’ve been truly blessed to be surrounded by wonderful, thoughtful, kind, and contributive human beings, who inspire me on a daily basis – and living up to your ideals, and contributing to those around you, isn’t very hard when you’re surrounded by examples like these.

This starts, of course, with my wife, who has been the greatest blessing I could ever hope for since our wedding almost two years ago. I’ve done my best to be a good husband, partner, and friend to her in the last year, but she makes it very, very easy, so she deserves much of the credit.

Likewise, I’ve been blessed with incredibly loving and supportive parents, who have always been more interested in my work than you could reasonably expect a parent to be (the reason why you hardly ever see a typo on the blog is that my mom reads everything as soon as it’s published, and if there’s an error, she catches it), offered insightful guidance, reassured me through setbacks, and celebrated my successes. And while I’ve done my best to be a good son, and made the effort and time to stay in touch at least a couple of times per week (which isn’t always easy when you live half a world and seven time zones away), all I’m really doing there is following their lead and example, so they should probably get most of the credit.

And my good fortune has extended to the people that I have the privilege of working with every single day. Yes, we definitely have a good process for finding and hiring great people, but it’s still difficult to create and maintain an organizational culture of learning, contribution, and growth, and I’m *very* grateful that I’ve been able to do so.

Finally, supported by all of these wonderful people, I suppose it’s no wonder that I’ve been able to create something special in the form of our community here at Mirasee, both on the blog, and within our training programs. To borrow from an email that one reader sent to me, we’ve somehow managed to create “a pocket of the world where people actually care about each other”.

Turning a Corner, and Taking on Big Things

Finally, and very importantly (for me, at least), is that I feel I’ve really turned a corner in the last year in terms of my readiness to take on truly big things.

The thing about a big failure like that is that it’s not just the money that you lose; it’s also the confidence, and for a long time, I felt very gun-shy about even thinking about taking on something truly massive in scale. I just wasn’t ready, and I had to work up to it.

So I did things, bit by bit; one guest post at a time, then several, then my book, then Write Like Freddy, then the Audience Business Masterclass, and it actually has grown into something a lot bigger than I had set out or expected to create.

It was a very, very difficult thing for me to do, and I’m proud of having done it.

My Proudest Moment of the Last Year

The single proudest moment of my year happened just a few weeks ago, in the student forums of the Business Ignition Bootcamp.

Now, you might remember that the Bootcamp was my big attempt to level the playing field, and provide a real, deep, and robust business education to people who really want and need it.

Well, the Bootcamp consisted of three modules, and the first was all about the different components that make up a business model, based in part on my Engagement from Scratch! co-author Randy Komisar‘s excellent book “Getting to Plan B”.

So right after the first module was completed, one of our students, Charlie from Sahel Design, posted this question in the forum:

“Ok I know we have moved on to Module 2 but I still have an unresolved question lingering from Module 1 and would be grateful if anyone can clarify. I have a business making bags from leather. Each bag uses between 1 and 3 hides each, but I have to buy hides in quantities of 15 or more per colour. I don’t always make to order so sometimes I have a few hides of leather left over in a certain colour. Does the total cost of that colour leather come under the cost of sales (Gross Margin Model) for that colour of bag or Operating Model (as I would have bought 15 hides regardless of how many bags in that colour I sell)?”

Now, first of all, I want to point out that this is a very sophisticated question to be asking after just two weeks of introduction to this sort of content.

And I was all set to jump in and give an answer, but two other students beat me to it. Nicola from Daylight Bloggery responded first:

“I am not any kind of expert – the business model components were totally new to me in module 1, so this is me talking out of my back pocket – but I personally would put this expense under the cost of sales (Gross Margin), but it has an effect on your working capital model, as there is a significant gap between you incurring the expense and being reimbursed by making the sale.

“One of your priorities, therefore, would be to look at ways you might either reduce this period or reduce the expense, sourcing your leather elsewhere, or sharing the purchase with another craftworker, etc.

“You could use lateral thinking and come up with ideas like setting up your own cooperative of craft workers who use leather and re-selling the leather you have to buy but don’t need, on the basis that there must be other craft workers with similar problems.

“I am not an expert on the business models or leather bag making, but from where I stand, I think that both Nicola and yourself hit the nail on the head. The unused leather fits under both of the headings – Gross Margin (cost of sales) and Working Capital (timing of money in/out).

“Although it might be a good (or only available) option to buy the leather in bulk to get a better price (better margins), you have working capital/money tied up in unused material – and also in inventory as you do not seem to make the bags to order.

“As you suggested, there might be a couple of ways how to improve the working capital ‘cycle/balance’; you could make bags to order, only use classic colors of leather, sell unused materials, or make different products using the left-over material – e.g. ‘exclusive/unique/boutique/designer’ pieces – bags as well as something like small purses or other accessories. These could be sold on your website or eBay, Etsy, in local markets, etc.”

Wow – that’s some *very* good and insightful advice from two people who claim not to have any expertise, isn’t it? 😉

In fact, it’s *excellent* advice – I couldn’t have offered a better answer myself, and I can’t tell you how proud I am to see my students thinking with such a level of sophistication and insight in such a short period of time.

So thank you, Charlie, Nicola, and Emilie (and everyone else in the Bootcamp, and in the Audience Business Masterclass) – you’ve made my year! 🙂

So I will definitely be celebrating today, because you have all *demonstrated* to me that my convictions were based in reality; that this deep level of business ability doesn’t have to be reserved for the select few who have been blessed with the good fortune and circumstance to attend schools like Harvard, or who were able to survive the painful experience of getting things wrong until they’re able to get them right.

And I hope you’ll join me in a celebratory birthday drink!

*clinks glasses* 😀

Times When I Stumbled, and Wish I Had Done Better

Now, as pleased and proud as I am with the successes and good times, they also brought challenges that I didn’t always meet in the way that I would have liked to, and there was more than one occasion when I stumbled, disappointed, and fell short of the person that I’m aspiring to be.

These challenges always begin at home, and there have been times when I fell short of being the husband that my wife deserves for me to be. Too often, she would raise a question, issue, or concern, and instead of listening to her, hearing her, and supporting her, I would take things personally, make the issue about me when it may not have had to be, and offered less in the way of support and understanding than I could or should.

With my team at Mirasee, I’ve sometimes forgotten that just because I know how to do something doesn’t mean that someone else does, and that if I’m working with great people who aren’t producing great results, it’s (almost) always because I’ve either placed them in the wrong role, or given them bad instructions, guidance, or support.

With my students, my failures have been particularly disappointing. There have been times when I unwittingly bit off a bit more than I could chew, and the promises of service and support that I had made went unmet. There were also times when mistakes were made; like a Bootcamper that was asked to leave the program because they weren’t keeping up with the content… except that they were, and it was my team and I had that had gotten the wires and records crossed. Of course, I apologized, but the fact is that it never should have happened in the first place, and it could probably have been avoided if I had spent more time investigating before acting.

With my community, my shortcomings have centered around patience and attention. My commitment to all of you is to support you to the best of my ability, and specifically to answer your questions in a timely and *helpful* manner. Now, I’ve always done that, but I can remember at least a few occasions when I dashed off a quick, off-the-cuff answer to someone whose question would have justified more attention and thought. Did I answer the question? Yes, I did. But did I give enough thought to why the question was being asked, and what the more helpful answer would be? Maybe not enough.

And with myself, my stumbles have been around integrity, and while I’ve never truly transgressed, there have been a few times this past year when I was tempted to toe the line. My barometer is always to ask myself whether I would be comfortable sharing something with my parents, wife, and future children, and while I’ve never done something that I would hide, there have been a few things that I wouldn’t be enthusiastic to advertise.

So yes – plenty of things that I could have done much, much better. Which is fine, because there’s always next year to improve…

What Next? My Plan for Being Better

Now, despite what I may have believed as a child, life doesn’t end at 30. 😉

In fact, I’m realizing more and more that the majority of my life, and the majority of my contribution is still ahead of me, and to that end, I know that however the last year may have gone, I must strive to do better.

To my wife, I will strive to be a better husband. I will listen more and better, set my own ego aside, and support her in any way that I can. I will also ask her to point out to me when I fail to do so, and in the times I will strive to listen with an open mind, step back from whatever my position might be, and remember these words that I’m writing today.

To my team, I will strive to always listen, understand, communicate, and explain. I will do my very best to create an environment that supports growth, accepts mistakes, and aims to learn and teach rather than reprimand or punish.

To my students, I will strive to always be patient, supportive, and helpful. I will strive to treat our work together as the partnership that it is, and do everything that I can to support your growth and help you to become the capable and successful entrepreneur that you’re becoming. I will strive to always remember that none of this is about me, and that your success *is* my success.

To my community, here at Mirasee, I will strive to act with integrity, and guide you towards the success that we are all working towards – success that is robust and based on real value for all. I will do my best to serve as an example that you can trust and respect, and continue to push myself and my team past our comfort zones, in the same way that we ask you to do.

And to my dreams, my goals, my values, and myself, I will strive to remain true. I will resist the temptation to become complacent, and overcome the fear that could stop me from acting in the way that I know I must act. I will remember that love is a verb, and trust is a choice. I will remember that principles like integrity and generosity are more important than any individual goal I might like to achieve, and I will treat others the way I would like to be treated in their situation.

Now, with all of these plans, I wrote that I will strive, because that’s the best I can do. I will try, and sometimes, I will fail. But when that happens, I will accept responsibility, pick myself up, and try again to do better the next time.

And I hope that you will help me.

Will You Hold Me Accountable?

I hope you’ll find it insightful. Or at least entertaining.

And now I’d like to ask you for a favor.

In this post, I’ve made some commitments to myself, and to my community; things that I want to try to do, and aspirations that I want to live up to.

So the favor is this:

When you see me veering off course… please remind me of these commitments.

Please (gently) call out my shortcomings, and steer me back to the path that I’m striving to walk.

Could you do that for me?

Now, I’ll be away from my computer today (or at least, I hope I’ll have the discipline to stay away!), but I’ll be back tomorrow, and look forward to spending the next year…

About Danny Iny

Danny Iny (@DannyIny) is the CEO and founder of Mirasee, host of the Business Reimagined podcast, and best-selling author of multiple books including Engagement from Scratch!, The Audience Revolution, and Teach and Grow Rich.

Yea Bethanny, it really hurt. Danny is one online entrepreneur that has worked so hard to help other people achieve success in their businesses, and he really deserves the Love his wonderful community has towards him.

As the saying goes, “It is He who wears the shoe that knows where it Pinches him.” Danny has taken steps so few people will take to talk about his shortcomings. I guess the world is getting Tired of these bosses who flaunt themselves as having no shortcomings, and this reminds me that everyone, me in particular has to identify my shortcomings and make a commitment to address them.

In my own opinion, Danny is an exceptional leader whom i Love and respect so much, and would personally plead with any member of this great community whom he offended unintentionally to please forgive, and never take it personal (including the great team at Firepole Marketing, and his dear wife).

Happy Birthday my Mentor and role model. I wish you great strides ahead.

P.S. This reminds me, i should be making up with my fiancee. She must have reacted as a result of my shortcomings..

Just to clarify: I didn’t say Danny’s post made my head hurt; I said I couldn’t read it because my head hurt. I came back later and read it when I was feeling better. I wanted to get the “Happy Birthday” in there while it was still his birthday.

I am sure that you will stick to your commitments and, as usual, go beyond them and achieve greatness and excellence!
Thanks for existing, Danny. The compliment goes out to your amazing team as well. And here’s to 30 times 30 more fantastic years for you and us!

I have never read such a transparent post. It’s a gift to read and hints at something bigger: that when you took a risk in being transparent–to admit your fears and shortcomings– will only serve to draw people to you because the truth is: we all know these fears.

I am one of the persons in your Business Ignition Class. My heart has been to encourage and support families living with autism (like my own). Our family has struggled to make ends meet since my son was diagnosed. I took a risk in 2007 and gave up my biggest client contract to write Autism’s Hidden Blessings, a book to encourage families like my own. Financially, it made NO sense to do it.

So let me tell you that when you offered something that frankly, no other successful marketer has EVER offered: a chance to learn for free, I saw a light of hope that maybe, just maybe, I could find a way to at last be financially able to KEEP ON encouraging the autism community …. without watching my family suffer with doctor’s bills, dentist bills and the like while I devoted my time to it.

This year, Danny, you faced your biggest fears and tossed a pebble into the water, not knowing where the ripples would go. You knew that everything could fall apart in doing it, but you did it anyway. You chose to support and encourage people you had never met, a choice that financially really made no sense.

You know what? You are going to see much, much more this year and in the years to come. Watch and see now where those ripples will lead. Let me tell you, you are about to see them go far and wide… much farther than you have imagined. You’ve been marching around a wall for a long time, one that seemed too high to get over, but that wall has finally fallen, and the victories lie ahead for you and your team.

At 30, you are only beginning! By stepping out, you’ve become a trailblazer in integrity… something that we all need so much these days. A rarity. A blessing.

I’m excited for you and the Firepole team. I’m expecting big things from YOU, and I am certain that I will see it.

Happy Birthday! Don’t forget to enjoy the journey. It goes much too quickly, but isn’t it a wonderful adventure?

You know I’m a fan and loved your coaching advice. You’ve gain so much experience in the past 15 years that you’re way ahead of your peers of the same age. I can’t imagine what the 40-year old Danny will be like, but we’ll all be fortunate to be part of the next 10 years of your life.

Your class is providing something no one else provides and it’s giving people a real foundation for growing a business, something some people can’t afford unless they can come up with 60-100k for business school. Glad I got to meet you at World Domination Summit. Hope to hang again soon.

Happy Birthday Danny, You have been an inspiration to me! I too have “beat myself up” for not accomplishing goals I had set for myself. For starters I “enthusiastically” signed up for Audience Business Masterclass…(which was A LOT of money …for me) and happened to be one of the ones who fell between the cracks with email support, so I immediately got behind…..(Please note, I am NOT blaming anyone)…so rather than “push myself” I QUIT …never completing the program! I have been so “disappointed in myself” so as I am soon approaching a “Birthday milestone” myself…(several years past yours)…I am PUBLICLY making a commitment here to go back…AND FINISH what I started. It will be harder without email/technical support and I no longer have access to the calls…but MY OVERWHELMING DESIRE is to Make An IMPACT…in my community….Thanks for the transparency and for reminding us that “failure is NOT an excuse to quit!!

May the next year bring you fun, love, happiness and good health(and of course your birthday wishes!) From personal experience the great programs Firepole Marketing team delivers, I am looking forward to the upcoming year knowing it’s going to be a fantastic year. Thanks for sharing.

Happy Birthday Danny! This letter makes me adore and respect you even more. It’s so difficult to admit your stumbles (especially publicly) but it makes you more accessible and transparent and even likable to your followers. Thank you for not letting fear get in the way of sharing your gifts with us. You’ll find that each decade brings not only more and better things to your life, but the maturity, patience and knowledge to give better and be better. I wish you great success in the coming year!

I think it’s a great idea to write an annual report letter on your birthday. Thanks for the idea!

You are fortunate to be surrounded by loving and supportive people. Not everyone has that experience, and I think people forget that we’re individuals with individual life experiences, some are easier than others.

I recommend being held accountable. It’s why I like working with my business coach. She gives me “homework,” and it’s up to me to complete it before our next meeting. My coach is also supportive and a great role model. If she could start a business in her bathroom and become a success, I can build a successful business from my home office. 🙂

You’re way too modest – any insight I have is a result of the incredible work you and the firepole team have done on putting together the Bootcamp. I can only thank you for giving me the opportunity to grow.

Happy birthday, Danny. Thank you for all the training. I don’t know how you do it but, every time a new issue is coming up for me with running an online business, you post about it, or offer a course or a webinar about it.

Totally timely and purposeful. Sound advice, thought through at all times.

It’s exciting being in business with your support and exciting watching what you do.

Wow! Took my time to read that line-by-line, taking notes where possible. Trust me. I’m going to so borrow the claws of the Freddy Krueger in guard of your accountability.
So you are 30? Unbelievable!
This just triggered my appetite for growth.
I celebrate you, Danny.
Enjoy!

Your willingness to be transparent about such vital inner work just opened a huge space in the hearts of so many in your audience to choose integrity and generosity of spirit. What a gift you’ve given us on your milestone birthday! Happy Birthday, Danny!

Sorry, Friday was too short to read it through, will continue after the weekend. But kudos to owning up to your shortcomings as well as your achievements, and I’m sure that being able to do the former helps with attaining the latter. 🙂

But the real reason I’m writing is to wish you a HAPPY BIRTHDAY with many more years of contribution and growth (and of course every success), all in the best of health and company! In short, wishing you all the best.

Happy Birthday, Danny, @Firepole Marketing.
I am happy, for your 30th anniversary.
I have read, some of your writings, especially ‘Engagement From Scratch’, could boast ‘audience building’ tactics.
Reading through your commitments, for the coming year, I felt inspired, with your passion, and encouragement, to move forward.
I hope you are, going to be great, and will accomplish, your next goals, with your success, in our minds.
Thank you, Danny.

I really enjoyed reading this. It does a lot for me to hear about your down moments because I see you as a very confident person. It helps me to know that you’ve had your moments of under-confidence, even though Firepole Marketing has been so successful for the last couple of years.

Impatience is a bit of a curse when you’re as intelligent and capable as you are. Your brain wants to move on to more challenging things. But patience is such a gift to others, and I have faith that you’ll develop it as you wish to.

I think you’ll find that life gets better with age. I know my 30s were way better than my 20s, and my 40s are better still. 🙂

You say “…I used to have this birthday practice of writing myself an “annual report” letter, about everything that went well in the last year, everything that didn’t, everything that I learned along the way, and how I intended to try and be a better person going forward.” I think another interesting approach to take would be to use a service like http://www.futureme.org/ and set the date to your next birthday. THEN you can see how much progress you’ve made and whether you made progress in the right direction.

Also, I think there’s great wisdom (and truth) to what you said about failing with a new business idea: “The thing about a big failure like that is that it’s not just the money that you lose; it’s also the confidence, and for a long time, I felt very gun-shy about even thinking about taking on something truly massive in scale.” I think failure is only a good thing if it doesn’t shatter your confidence so badly that you give up altogether. Losing confidence may be worse than losing money in some circumstances.

Anyway, thanks a lot for sharing this and for everything you do,
Steve

Happy 30th Birthday, Danny. You may not realize it, but if you are lucky, life is just beginning and you will have many years ahead of you to make a difference. But then we never know when each day will be our last. When you get to be my age, 73, and can still say I make my living from the Internet and have helped many along the way, you will really have something to be proud of. So my Birthday present to you, Danny, is to suggest that you “live each day as if it were your last” and always remember that “today is the first day of the rest of your life.”

Hi Danny! I turned the big Three-Six the day before! I celebrated with a 3D session of Pacific Rim. I hope you had at least as much fun on your big day!

Thank you very much for an unflinching post about how you’ve done and how you’re doing. It’s refreshing to read about the errors as much as the successes; I’m right at the beginning and it helps to read not only that the experts are still fallible, but that fallibility is survivable – and a necessity for learning. I’m still struggling with internal resistance on that front.

Every post you write reaffirms my decision to sign up with you and the FPM Team for training. Your sincerity and dedication shine through time and again. Not to mention your expertise!

That being said, I thought you were older! (big smile) I am. “Older” that is, not that I ‘feel’ older. But I remember clearly being in my mid-twenties and having my boss explain that “no one under 30” could earn serious money. The fact that I was managing a multi-million-dollar facility for him didn’t affect his opinion. (I wanted a small raise, so I could afford groceries!)

You have a whole world of amazing experiences to look forward to, as long as you continue to treat your wife with the respect and devotion you so often display. (another smile) Here’s to The Next 30 Years! (It’s a great song, if you can stand Country Music.)

Happy 30th Birthday Danny,
A little belated but never the less I wish you a very happy and successful year. I hated becoming thirty. I stressed out a whole year about becoming 30 and then when I hit it everything seemed fine and I don’t know why I stressed out so. I am intrigued with your letter and find it would be an excellent way to start my own. It got my attention as you mentioned your strengths and weakness and then established exactly what you want to accomplish during the next year. The fact that you are asking for interaction also got my attention. Thank you for writing that letter. I am looking forward to watching you progress through your next year.

What a very inspiring post. What you’ve shown here are three things I really admire: courage, willingness and accountability. It’s very true how failure can really undermine your self-esteem but it’s how you get over them that matters. Your willingess to do better and being accountable for your errors and mistakes is to be applauded. Just as lucky as you are with your wife, friends, family and team; they are lucky to have you too! More power to your business and I hope that more readers get to read your story.